Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas Everyone! I hope you have a wonderful day celebrating with your family & friends.  This morning we had Gingerbread Challah French Toast after we opened presents. This is going to be a quick post so I can get back to playing with Stella and her new toys.

In a bowl combine 1/2 teaspoon of ground cinnamon, 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger, 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg and 1/4 teaspoon of ground clove and 1/4 teaspoon ground allspice.  Add 1 1/2 teaspoons of the mixture to 1/2 cup of Mascarpone and mix well.

I used the Challah bread from Trader Joes as I have in the past with my other French toast recipes. I also used the TJ brand of Mascarpone cheese.

Because I was using two slices of bread I tried to slice them a little thinner than 1 inch.  In a bowl whisk together 3 eggs and approximately 1/4 cup milk. To the egg mixture add 1 teaspoon vanilla extract. Add the remainder of the gingerbread seasoning to the mixture and an additional pinch of ground cinnamon and ground nutmeg. 


Melt butter in the pan before cooking the french toast.  Spread a generous amount of the gingerbread mascarpone on 1 side of each slice of bread. Put the slices together like a sandwich with the Mascarpone in the middle and dip the bread into the egg mixture. Be sure both sides are covered.  Let excess drip off back into bowl. Cook in pan until slightly browned on both sides.  Sprinkle with powdered sugar and some pomegranate seeds.

Her reaction when she saw all of the presents under the tree

Very excited about her new Sid the Science Kid Microphone

This meal was rated 4.5 asparagus spears

Omelet Cups

This evening I thought I would make a quick batch of omelet cups so that I have something to bring to work for breakfast and S could try something new.  I’ve made these in the past and they are super easy and quite tasty. Basically you can take any meat, veggies and/or cheese that you would normally put into an omelet and instead you cook them in a muffin tin.  They give you a perfect small serving of an omelet that can be easily re-heated.  I typically store them in twos, so that I can just grab a package and re-heat them in the microwave at the office.

Tonight I used the following chopped vegetables: onion, green pepper, cremini mushroom, tomato and chives.  I also added a small amount of white cheddar cheese.  The one thing I failed to do before starting this whole process was to check how many eggs we had.  I quickly found out that we only had 2 left, as a result I now have an overabundance of chopped vegetables.  I guess I will have to pick up a dozen eggs tomorrow and make another batch later in the week.  In the meantime, this recipe is on a smaller scale than normal since it’s based on two eggs only.

In a bowl combine, 2 eggs whisked with a splash of milk, salt and pepper.  Add 1 tablespoon of each of the following chopped onion, green pepper, cremini mushrooms, tomatoes and chives.  Mix well.  Add ½ slice of white cheddar cheese cut into small pieces.   Lightly apply cooking spray to the muffin tin.  Add ¼ cup of egg mixture to each of the muffin sections, I was able to get four omelet cups with this batch.  Bake on 325 degrees for approximately 15 minutes. 

Here are a few suggestions of omelet cup combinations:
Diced Ham, Cheddar Cheese, Mushroom, Green Pepper and Onion
Spinach, Tomato and Feta Cheese
Turkey Breakfast Sausage, Cheddar Cheese, Mushroom and Onion